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Play Report 27 — The Embassy
The first half of this session involved Hant’s player explaining the
events of the
prior session to Akela’s and Almuund’s players. Questions are asked
about the various denizens of the nightmare, and answered to the extent
of revealed player knowledge. A plan begins to form: the party has the
cash to spend some time resting so that Hant can purify his spells and
regain lost points of ferocity, so in three days time the party will
return to hurt the snake. Until then, Almuund and Akela will pursue the
plan of gathering intel about dirigibles.
The first step in this process is to attend the meeting secured with the
Occult-Futurist ambassador Sala. Almuund and Akela purchase nicer
outfits for the occasion.
When they arrive at the warehouse that Sala and company occupy, they are
promptly let in. The interior is dark and separated into smaller rooms
by partitions that the Occult-Futurists have raised. Individual rooms
are lit by electric bulbs that hum ominously. The ambassador meets them
in a room with a large table, upon which sits a topographical map under
a glass pane to be written on + erased. He greets them, revealing that
he knows their names, though he does not know where they are from.
Almuund and Akela pick up on this and are happy to leave him only
knowing that they were recently dwelling in Catage.
Akela tells Sala that the party are historians, interested in aviation.
Sala is happy to give a spiel on the wonders of flight as discovered by
Riccamino.
He recounts a history of the development of airships via the gasses
released from Riccamino’s factories, giving the process an idyllic
framing. When Akela asks to see an airship directly, he is hesitant, but
sees an opportunity — feigning a concern for maintaining mutual
cooperation, he says that she has been cooperative in the past and
relents in the hope that it will serve to make her continue to do so in
the future. What this really will buy him is easier surveillance of a
weirdo. He shows them Rubello’s reports on the party, which seem to
leave out the threats of violence.
Akela and Almuund are led upstairs to an open-roofed warehouse level
where a small airship sits, and given a chance to examine it on a
surface level. I let both of them make research rolls, and the result of
both is: “4-6 You discover no useful information, and may encounter
someone you would rather avoid, at the GM’s discretion.”
The obvious answer to who this is has been set up, and into the room
walks Rubello, spymaster of the crossroads. He delivers a letter to
Sala, who reads it and immediately makes an apology to the party: he has
been summoned on urgent business to the Molars of
Leviathan, but he trusts Rubello to keep an eye on them and answer
any questions. Sala boards the airship, and Rubello leads the party
downstairs. Akela asks a few questions of him, trying to determine any
facts she can about dirigible construction. He is unwilling to share
much, so Akela changes tactics: she tries to goad him into letting more
slip. She alternates between implying Rubello is cowardly for letting
his national loyalties tie him down while also questioning what he
thinks of the people he is spying on. Rubello stolidly states that he is
unbothered by the accusations of evil-doers, and that he cannot be
shamed into rash action like the mewling fools of catage pining after a
lost king.
Akela says that he knows where to find her if he wants a fight. He does
in fact know this.
